Nature’s crisis entwines with social violence
Standing at the seashore, I looked to where the deep water met the hazy afternoon sky. A jellyfish, bobbing along on waves washing the beach, caught my attention. Looking more closely, I realized that it wasn’t a living being but a swollen, blue-tinted plastic bag.
Today both the water and marine life are stressed.
Plastic dumped into the ocean is as if we emptied a truckload worth every minute. Think of it! Fish, turtles, dolphins, and whales perish by swallowing plastic objects, or suffocate, starve or drown getting tangled in plastic nets. One million seabirds are killed by plastic waste each year.
A photo of a dead seabird, its stomach filled with plastic, made me recoil at this unnatural and disturbing image. Overfishing, trawling (scouring the ocean floor for seafood), mining, and noise pollution, also, contribute to the crushing stress that is jeopardizing the ocean.
Water covers 70% of this Earth’s surface.
A healthy marine environment has the capacity to support a variety of organisms, from small species to large ones, that have ample food sources. We depend on the oceans for 50% of the air we breathe. Water must, therefore, be clean and free from chemicals that can decrease oxygen for living beings.
Living in habitats that are free from loud motor noises help sea life identify sound cues for survival. A healthy environment includes habitat space at the shoreline, too. A shoreline with ample sand must be maintained for shore birds and sand dwellers to thrive.
We Jews have a deep history of respecting water and its value for humankind and other living beings.
Prayers and appeals for rain are among the earliest Jewish religious writings. And, “Blessed are you, eternal our God, ruler of the Universe, who made the great sea,” is a prayer specifically for the seas and oceans.
To be closer to the world around us, we recite these blessings regularly in our homes and when we worship together. When we teach blessings to our children and our children’s children, day by day and little by little, we live more peacefully with nature and by the covenants of our faith.
Being closely connected with the natural world matters.
In 2004, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) presciently predicted the current deadly pandemic and its disruptive outcomes.The outcomes we face now are societal and global suffering, and deteriorating civil unity.
Furthermore, trends of intolerance, like casting blame on marginalized groups, have become a terrible reality. In its most recent report, the NIC predicts these same trends going forward. Unless we stop nature’s collapse, expect violence to continue.
Intolerance is, consequently, tied to COVID-19, a significant signal of our broken relationship with this Earth. The coronavirus apocalypse forcibly heightens our anxiety. Most concerning is extreme anxiety, a deep-seated fear for one’s survival.
How do humans cope with a primal sense of dread? Intolerance. Responding to the threats of a worsening environment, some individuals and destructive groups attack others. These attacks aim to confirm a notion that they are more deserving than others for a decreasing supply of natural resources.
Attacks often baselessly target minority people like Jews. Focusing on minorities does nothing to solve our insistent real problems with our planet.
To fight the toxic environment in the ocean and deadly pathogens, we must repair the world.
That means recognizing that not only tough economic and political times cause trouble for minority groups. Trouble can arise from other people’s dread of extinction, the end of civilization. Fear for one’s survival can incite violence.
Survival, by contrast, actually depends on repairing our damaged relationship with the Earth before the consequences make it impossible to fix.
Let’s start with what we Jews know and practice — the Sabbath. During Shabbat, we separate from our daily activities, we seek rest, and make time for refreshing ourselves. We enjoy a peaceful Sabbath each week and throughout the year.
Let’s boldly start a Sabbath for the Earth.
A Sabbath that invokes blessings and provides the ocean opportunities to restore abundance. A Sabbath that repeats right through the year. Cut down on eating seafood. Cut down on using plastic products; repurpose instead of recycling that plastic.
Take fewer plastic bags from stores. Keep reusable cloth bags in the car for both groceries and all other purchases. Look around your home and life to come up with other useful ideas. Let’s make a sincere commitment to the words we recite in prayer, “we are thankful for the Earth,” with actions.
Guided by the strength and resilience of Jewish values, a Sabbath for our Earth can show nature the love and respect that it deserves.
Mary Greenberg, Ph.D., serves on the State of Kansas Holocaust Commission. Her speaking engagements on preventing anti-Semitism are based on her research that advances the study of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. She is dedicated, also, to writing about how a Jewish perspective, with deeply principled values, enriches our contemporary lives.
